· the potential for codes and standards in sa: lessons from international experiences ron...

· The potential for codes and standards in SA: lessons from

international experiences

Ron Watermeyer

Soderlund & Schutte (Pty) Ltd

WHAT IS A BUILDING CODE (REGULATION)?

A document used by a local, state or national government body to control building practice, through a set of statements of “acceptable” minimum requirements to ensure “adequate” building performance.

Adequate must be defined in terms of societal and community needs – hence no universal standard.

WHAT ARE BUILDING STANDARDS?

Technical documents that standardise, generally in terms of quality or performance, but sometimes in terms of size or procedure, some activity in relation to building and construction.

They serve as a form of benchmark.

TYPES OF BUILDING CODES AND STANDARDS

•Prescriptive

-describe how buildings should be designed, constructed and maintained.

•Functional

-qualitative functional statements are made but no quantitative user or technical performance criteria are prescribed

•Performance-based

-qualitative functional requirements are established; quantitative user and technical performance criteria are provided; and acceptable solutions and evaluation and design tools are offered.

WORLD TRADE ORGANISATION

Recognises that the major non-tariff trade barriers (obstacles) that inhibit building and construction trade are prescriptive building codes and standards.

Article 2.8 of the Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade (WTO 1997), states that “Whenever appropriate, Members shall specify technical regulations based on product requirements in terms of performance rather than design or descriptive characteristics”

PERFORMANCE BASED REGULATIONS

Level 1

Level 2

Level 3

Level 4

GOAL

FUNCTIONAL REQUIREMENTS

PERFORMANCE REQUIREMENTS

EVALUATION

By application of deemed-to-satisfy design and construction rules

By testing and / or assessment

By application of well established engineering principles

By expert opinion and judgment

Legal requirements

South African National Standard

SANS 10400

Sustainable housing is housing that:

• provides adequate shelter whilst satisfying fundamental human needs relating to health, safety and the well being of residents;

• is affordable to access, maintain and live in;

• minimises the harmful effects of housing developments on the local environment;

• conserves and manages resources including energy and water, in its design, construction, maintenance and functioning; and

• provides significant employment opportunities in its construction, alteration or refurbishment.

Sustainable housing is housing that:

• provides adequate shelter whilst satisfying fundamental human needs relating to health, safety and the well being of residents;

• is affordable to access, maintain and live in;

• minimises the harmful effects of housing developments on the local environment;

• conserves and manages resources including energy and water, in its design, construction, maintenance and functioning; and

• provides significant employment opportunities in its construction, alteration or refurbishment.

National Building Regulations

Environment Conservation Act

Not in National Building Regulations

ENERGY EFFICIENCY

• Not addressed in National Building Regulations

• Thermal performance is the driver of heating consumption requirements in low cost housing units.

• Use of coal and biomass (wood and dung) for heating results in health problems

Note: The mortality rate of acute respiratory illnesses among children is reported in South Africa to be 270 times greater than for children in Western Europe

ENERGY EFFICIENCY STANDARDS IN SOUTH AFRICA

•No South African National Standards

•There is some work underway to develop national standards for both buildings and housing

•Agrement South Africa does assess the thermal performance of housing in its evaluations

RESIDENTIAL STANDARDS FOR ENERGY EFFICIENCY

Three distinct approaches emerge from a scan of Australia, Canada, Israel, ISO, South Africa, United Kingdom and USA

- prescriptive (via enforceable regulation, building codes, mandatory or voluntary prescriptive -type standards)

- performance-based standards or codes (mandatory or voluntary)

- performance-based rating systems

General trend is towards a mixture of the three

PERFORMANCE BASED CODES / STANDARDS

Level 1

Level 2

Level 3

Level 4

GOAL

FUNCTIONAL REQUIREMENTS

PERFORMANCE REQUIREMENTS

EVALUATION

By application of deemed-to-satisfy design and construction rules

By testing and / or assessment

By application of well established engineering principles

By expert opinion and judgment

Prescriptive requirements derived from other means of evaluating performance

A MODEL FOR ENERGY EFFICIENCY IN HOUSING

1) Establish goal for developing energy efficient standard

eg to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, a house, including its services, is to be capable of efficiently using energy

or

the thermal performance of a house, in order to facilitate the efficient use of energy for heating and cooling, is to satisfy levels nominated by the user.


2) Establish a performance description

e.g. the building fabric shall, to a nominated degree, have a level of thermal performance to facilitate the efficient use of energy for artificial heating and cooling appropriate to:

• the function and use of the house;

• the geographic location of the house;

• the direction of solar radiation; and

• the internal environment.


3) Establish a performance parameter for the purpose of comparison for each housing sector (say subsidy housing and non-subsidy housing)

eg a value in kWh/m2 per annum in a house that is representative of the majority of the housing stock or most commonly encountered form of house construction in each of the different climatic areas in South Africa.


4) Regulate new house construction to ensure equivalent or superior performance to the reference house.

Provide the means by which compliance can be assessed

5) Put in place programmes or incentives to upgrade / improve the performance of the existing housing stock in order to reduce the number of houses that have an inferior performance to the reference house.

Provide the means by which improvements in performance can be measured.


6) Put in place programmes or incentives to create a demand for performance superior to the reference house in new house construction and the existing housing stock eg star rating schemes.

Provide the means by which the stars can be allocated

Establish a performance parameter for the purpose of comparison for each housing sector eg a value in kWh/m2 per annum

Comparative performance parameter

Number of houses

Performance norm (minimum standard) Majority of houses / most common form of construction

Reference house

ActionsRegulate to eliminate inferior performance in new stockProvide programmes to upgrade existing underperforming stockPut in place incentives to encourage superior performance

Increase standard for reference house and repeat process

Number of houses

Comparative performance parameter

Reference house

under performing houses

New reference house

GOALS RELATING TO ENERGY EFFICIENCY ARE HINDERED DUE TO A LACK OF APPORPRIATE :

Building regulations (codes)

Building standards

INTRODUCING ENERGY EFFICIENCY INTO SA’S NATIONAL BUILDING REGULATIONS

1) Amend the National Building Regulations and Standards Act

2) Amend the National Building Regulations

3) Develop deemed to satisfy provisions

Standards required to implement

International examples:

An EU directive issued in December 2002 instructs that the energy usage in buildings shall be evaluated on a holistic basis, where not only the space heating demand is to be taken into account, but energy use for cooling, lighting, appliances, fans, pumps etc as well.

The directive also instructs that all buildings, including homes, that are to be sold or rented, shall have a valid certificate informing about its energy performance and the measure that could be taken to improve it.

The directive also instructs that all buildings, including homes, that are to be sold or rented, shall have a valid certificate informing about its energy performance and the measure that could be taken to improve it.

Who issues it?

How is it assessed? What is the basis?

How is this communicated?

Standards required to implement

For further information please refer to:

Soderlund and Schutte’s FINAL REPORT ON STANDARDS FOR ENERGY EFFICIENT HOUSING IN SOUTH AFRICA, National Department of Housing, May 2003

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